Good news for space enthusiasts! The NASA has regained contact with its miniature helicopter Ingenuity after several days of anguish. The drone, about 0.5 meters tall, arrived on Mars in 2021 aboard the Perseverance rover and became the first motorized spacecraft to fly autonomously on another planet.
Last Thursday, during a test flight, NASA suddenly lost communication with Ingenuity, in what was its 72nd flight since its arrival on the red planet. “The communications between the helicopter and the vehicle ended before landing,” the space agency reported.
However, as they say, all’s well that ends well. On Sunday night, the Twitter account of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA confirmed that contact had finally been established with the helicopter by ordering the Perseverance, which is responsible for transmitting the data, to “perform long-duration listening sessions of the Ingenuity’s signal”.
“The team is reviewing the new data to better understand the unexpected interruption of communications during flight 72,” NASA added.
